Posted on 02/05/2005 8:10:25 PM PST by Paul_Denton
Big News Network.com Saturday 5th February, 2005 (UPI)
The United States would dispatch 690,000 troops to help defend South Korea if war broke out on the peninsula, Seoul's Defense Ministry said Friday.
Some 2,000 military planes and 160 warships would also be sent in the event of an attack from communist North Korea, the ministry said in its White Paper.
The reinforcements would include several carrier battle groups capable of launching multilateral naval operations and air strikes against North Korea's border artillery forces, as well as self-guided weapons to hit the North's air force facilities and weapons of mass destruction, the paper said.
The United States currently stations 32,500 troops in South Korea to help the host country deter a possible invasion from communist North Korea.
But the South's defense policy guideline removed its 10-year-long references to North Korea as the South's main enemy, a move intended to speed up the process of inter-Korean reconciliation.
Instead, the Defense Ministry will refer to North Korea as a direct military threat, according to the paper. The change could trigger a protest from anti-communist conservatives.
God, the press is sooooo imcompetent. Saw this out on Friday. This was out of a leaked S. Korean internal gov't "document". Not as this article states. Secondly, the numbers quoted are absurd. There are not 690,000 u.s. troops, and there is no way the u.s. would send anywhere near those numbers to protect S. Korea. We are pulling troops outta there partly due to lack of respect. This is an intential "leak" to get the N. Koreans to engage in talks. Nothing else.
here's another story that sheds more light.....
South Korea Updates War Plan Vs. North
Fri Feb 4, 5:02 PM ET World - AP Asia
By SANG-HUN CHOE, Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea - The United States would dispatch 690,000 troops and 2,000 warplanes if war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, according to a South Korean defense policy paper released Friday.
The brief revealed South Korean efforts to redefine its 50-year-old stalemate with the communist North and readjust its alliance with the United States.
The commitment of U.S. troops in the event of war appears aimed at easing concerns that Washington is using U.S. troops in South Korea (news - web sites) as a rapid deployment force, which could create a vacuum in the world's last remaining Cold War flashpoint.
"The reinforcement plan reflects a strong U.S. commitment to defending South Korea," the South Korean memo said.
Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Greg Hicks, said he could not speak to the specific numbers in the report, but said the size of any U.S. deployment in the event of a Korean conflict would depend on the nature of the conflict.
The U.S. military total force strength worldwide is about 3 million, according to the Department of Defense (news - web sites).
Washington and its allies have been trying to end the North's nuclear weapons programs through multinational disarmament talks.
North Korea (news - web sites), already armed with large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, is resisting U.S. pressure to give up its nuclear weapons programs. Three rounds of six-nation talks aimed at ending the programs produced no breakthroughs.
North Korea, which accuses the United States and South Korea of preparing to invade over its nuclear weapons programs, has added more artillery pieces and missiles to its Korean People's Army, already the world's fifth-largest, it said. The number of North Korean troops remained unchanged at 1.17 million.
Later Friday, North Korea' state-run media quoted a military officer promising severe retaliation if war breaks out.
"If the U.S. imperialists ignite flames of war, we will first of all strike all bases of U.S. imperialist aggressors and turn them into a sea of fire," North Korea's Central Radio quoted officer Hur Ryong as saying, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Hur was also quoted as saying that the North Korean military will "thoroughly incinerate the aggressor elements that collude with the U.S. imperialists," in an apparent reference to South Korea and Japan, both of which host U.S. military bases.
Hur made his comment on Wednesday during a debate in Pyongyang on leader Kim Jong Il's "army-first" policy that stresses military strength.
Seoul and Washington forged their alliance during the 1950-53 Korean War, when American troops led U.N. forces to defend South Korea from communist invaders. The war ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically at war.
The brief, updated for the first time in four years, removes 10-year-old references to North Korea being the South's "main enemy," though it still calls the North a "direct military threat."
The removal of the "main enemy" term is largely symbolic but reflects South Korea's efforts at fostering reconciliation with North Korea.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&ncid=731&e=10&u=/ap/20050204/ap_on_re_as/koreas_defense_guidelines
The numbers don't make sense in the first place, and your right, would we send troops to contaminated areas? *I don' thin' so.........* Maybe 'bots' of some kind.. Maybeeeee...someone will take his opium pipe away. A nutjob only Madeline Albright could love.
Heeeeeeeeeeeeee.... :)
True.
A somewhat suspect story. The ROK Ministry of Defense is well aware of US strengths. Also, the ROKs don't need that kind of troop strength from us given the size of their own active forces and reserves. The only thing they really need from us is additional air power and precision strike weapons and our intelligence assets.
I still can't get past where that number came from. South Korea says 690K US troops.. ???? Not long ago I read where we were pulling troops out of SK... The SK's were screaming at us to get the hell out, so we finally said... alrighty then... we'll pull out 35K and leave 14K. So all of a sudden there are 690 THOUSAND US troops???
This must be the ultimate blustering of SK, no?
Apparently from Hollywood Special FX and robotics.
No the US would not. It would be far more high tech and devastating than that. Ludicrous.
:) LOL!! That's got to be it. hehehe..
JJ, the plan to reinforce South Korea with massive amounts of US forces is nothing new. We do have the forces using the "Total Force Concept." The plan does get updated every few years. For instance, one large unit that's earmarked for any future Korean war is the 40th Infantry Mechanized Division out of California. Here is the snippet of the OPLAN for Korea:
OPLAN 5027-00
According to the 04 December 2000 South Korean Defense Ministry White Paper, the United States would deploy up to 690,000 troops on the Korean peninsula if a new war breaks out. The United States apparently had considerably increased the number of troops that would be deployed in any new Korean conflict. The figure had risen from 480,000 in plans made in the early 1990s and 630,000 in the mid-1990s. The latest Time Phased Forces Deployment Data for any contingency on the Korean Peninsula is comprised of 690,000 troops, 160 Navy ships and 1,600 aircraft deployed from the U.S. within 90 days. [called a Time Phased Deployment Plan - TFDP]
The South Korean defense ministry described the increase as the result of a new US "win-win strategy," which would require the United States to have the capability to fight two wars simultaneously, such as in the Middle East and East Asia. Along with equipment to counter weapons of mass destruction, the US plan focused on the deployment of aircraft carriers and advanced aircraft to attack enemy artillery units in the early stages of any war.
US augmentation forces, including the army, navy, air force, and the marine corps, are composed of approximately 690,000 troops. The augmented forces comprise army divisions, carrier battle groups with highly advanced fighters, tactical fighter wings, and marine expeditionary forces in Okinawa and on the US mainland. The US augmentation forces have contingency plans for the Korean peninsula to execute the Win-Win Strategy in support of United Nations Command (UNC)/Combined Forces Command (CFC) operation plans.
There are three types of augmentation capability: Flexible Deterrence Options (FDOs), Force Module Packages (FMPs), and the Time-Phased Forces Deployment Data (TPFDD). These are executed through a unit integration process, when the commander of CFC requests them and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff orders them in case of a crisis on the Korean peninsula.
FDOs are ready to be implemented when war is imminent. They can be classified into political, economic, diplomatic, and military options. Approximately 150 deterrence options are ready to be employed.
FMPs are measures that augment combat or combat support units that need the most support in the early phase of the war should war deterrence efforts through FDOs fail. Included in the FMPs are elements such as strong carrier battle groups.
Under TPFDD, in which FDO and FMP are included, the key forces are planned ahead of time to be deployed in case of an outbreak of war. There are three types of forces under TPFDD: in-place forces, or forces currently deployed to the peninsula; pre-planned forces, or forces of time-phased deployment in a contingency; and on-call forces, which could be deployed if needed.
here's another version from The Korea Times
US to Dispatch 690,000 Troops to Korea in Crisis
By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
About 690,000 U.S. troops along with 2,000 military aircraft and 160 warships would be mobilized to defend South Korea in the event of a war on the Korean peninsula, according to a document released by the Ministry of National Defense Friday.
The Defense White Paper said the U.S.' contingency plan included the deployment of 70 percent of its Marine Corps. The remaining forces consisted of 50 percent of the U.S. Air Force and 40 percent of the U.S. Navy.
The planned increase in forces is mainly designed to provide strikes against North Korean field artillery located near the inter-Korean border in the early stage of any war and ensure sea and air superiority with several aircraft carriers, the paper said.
The reinforcement of U.S. forces was labeled a ``strategic maneuver,'' under which troops and military equipment could be transported from or to anywhere in the world, it said.
As part of the U.S.' plan to streamline its troops into a more mobile force better able to cope with new security threats like terrorism, the U.S. will remove 12,500, or one-third, of its current troops from South Korea by 2008.
The document said that North Korea has strengthened its missile and artillery forces in an apparent bid to increase striking power with the smallest financial outlay.
North Korea increased its field guns by 1,000 to 13,500 over the past four years and has established a missile department in its Defense Ministry, the paper said.
About 70 percent of the 1-million-strong North Korean ground forces are stationed south of the Pyongyang-Wonsan line, which enables Pyongyang to launch a surprise attack without any redeployment.
The paper also said that North Korea is believed to have developed one or two nuclear weapons from weapons-grade plutonium extracted before the International Atomic Energy Agency conducted an inspection of nuclear facilities in North Korea in 1992.
The controversial designation of ``main enemy'' for North Korea was deleted from the Defense White Paper in what appears to be part of Seoul's efforts to reconcile with Pyongyang. North Korea was described as a ``direct military threat'' instead.
North Korea's conventional weapons, weapons of mass destruction and its forward deployment of troops were all mentioned as direct military threats to South Korea in the paper.
The ministry said it decided to remove main enemy from the official defense document due to the special and dual nature of inter-Korean relations.
The paper was published after years of postponement due to a dispute over the term of reference for North Korea.
The ministry began labeling North Korea ``main enemy'' in the paper in 1995, a year after a North Korean official threatened to turn Seoul into ``a sea of fire.''
North Korea was simply referred to as an enemy in the White Paper until 1994.
yoonwonsup@koreatimes.co.kr
02-04-2005 16:57
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200502/kt2005020416552010440.htm
Well I got news for you, we ain't got 690,000 to deploy.
The Pentagon gave up on the two front war plan some time agao and we don't have the resources for this unless we reinstate the Draft which would be fine with me.
Which would be typical of them
Life has changed. MOS training takes considerably longer than it did when you and I were drafted. If a draft was announced today, it would be 18 months before you could field your first unit. It may be a way to respond to a perceived threat well in advance. But in reaction to an invasion of the South? Not an option.
NOW, this number makes sense to me, especially tied to a plan. Thank you much for posting this. I can now stop nagging about the darn number.. Though nagging is my natural born profession, I usually reserve that for family... >grin> :)
Thanks again!
George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of Korea.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of Korea.
George: That's what I want to know.
Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of Korea?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow's name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in Korea.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of Korea.
Condi: Hu.
George: The main man in Korea
Condi: Hu is leading Korea
George: Now whaddya' asking me for?
Condi: I'm telling you, Hu is leading Korea.
George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading Korea?
Condi: That's the man's name.
George: That's who's name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you, or will you not, tell me the name of the new leader of Korea!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in Korea though he's dead in the Middle East.
Condi: That's correct.
George: Then who is in Korea?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in Korea?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Look Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of Korea, get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don't want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N?
Condi: Hu is the guy in Korea.
George: Will you stay out of Korea?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone
sorry about whatever happened above.....
the current crop of Korea stories @
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?ei=ISO-8859-1&c=&p=korea
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